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Education

Civic body to grant aid to 33 private schools

Thursday, 18 February 2010 11:35 administrator
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Indian Express 18.02.2010

Civic body to grant aid to 33 private schools

Stuti Shukla Tags : civic aid to private schools, mumbai Posted: Thursday , Feb 18, 2010 at 2359 hrs

mumbai: As the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation grapples with the closure of its Marathi medium schools, it has decided to partially aid additional 33 private schools, 17 of which are Marathi medium schools. Of the remaining— eight are Urdu medium schools; seven are Hindi medium while one is a Gujarati medium school.

Despite the financial crunch being faced by the civic body, it has sanctioned a grant of Rs 5.3 crore to these 35 private schools for the academic year 2010-11. The allocated funds will account for 50 per cent of the total cost of running these schools while the remaining 50 per cent of the expenses will be incurred by the respective school managements. With a budget worth over Rs 1700 crore for 2010-11, the BMC’s education department is currently aiding 457 private schools with over 2.5 lakh students.

According to Dr Ram Barot, chairman of the BMC’s education committee, the said schools had applied for grants. “However, considering the financial situation we have decided not to aid anymore private schools till we are financially sound,” said Barot. The BMC had echoed a similar resolution last year when it sanctioned funds to aid 11 private schoolsTwenty seven municipal-run Marathi schools have shut down in the last one-and-a-half years owing to the decreasing demand amongst masses for Marathi education.

 

Last Updated on Thursday, 18 February 2010 11:37
 

Gardening school to upgrade skills of nursery keepers, gardeners

Thursday, 18 February 2010 11:21 administrator
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Indian Express 18.02.2010

Gardening school to upgrade skills of nursery keepers, gardeners

Hamari Jamatia Tags : NDMC nursery, delhi Posted: Thursday , Feb 18, 2010 at 0125 hrs

With horticulture as a prime area of focus for the next year, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is gearing up to start a gardening school to train gardeners and nursery keepers.

Chairperson of the civic body Parimal Rai said, “We take pride in our greens and always try to augment them. We will be coming up with a school for gardening that will teach specific skills to the horticulture staff.”

While the plan is still in nascent stage and the location for the school is yet to be decided, an official said experts will be called in to organise workshops at the school.

The staff will be trained will be in the field of plant protection, tissue culture, soil science and landscape design, the official said.

“Some of the staff members were recruited long ago and need to be updated about the latest trends in horticulture,” the official said.

According to officials, countries like Japan and US are far ahead in terms of floral arrangements and landscape designs and these examples need to be replicated in the city as well.

Last Updated on Thursday, 18 February 2010 11:23
 

NMC teachers feast at the expense of kids

Thursday, 11 February 2010 08:06 administrator
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The Times of India 11.02.2010

NMC teachers feast at the expense of kids

TNN, 11 February 2010, 06:42am IST

NAGPUR: The misuse of Nagpur Municipal Corporation's (NMC) nutritious diet scheme by teachers at a primary school in Tajnagar was exposed on Wednesday following a raid. The teachers of this school had forced the self help group (SHG) supplying lunch to the school to provide them meat preparations twice a week.

NMC school students are provided free lunch by the civic body through women SHGs. Asmita women self-help group had been awarded the contract of supplying nutritious lunch to students of Tajnagar Urdu Primary School about two years ago. The teachers and non-teaching staffers told the SHG to provide them lunch too. As this was not a common demand, the SHG members complied.

However, the school staffers, including head mistress Smita Khobragade, were not satisfied with a simple meal. Within a few months, they started demanding that meat preparations be included in their lunch. Since the SHG's contract can be terminated if the headmistress complains to the NMC education department that the food provided by it is substandard, the SHG members decided to comply with their demand.


The issue reached a flashpoint when the school staff started demanding meat dishes twice a week on regular basis. This upset the budget of Asmita women's SHG. President Vidya Taksande and secretary Seema Raut lodged a complaint with Alka Dalal, chairperson of NMC women and child welfare committee, a fortnight ago.

Dalal passed on the information to NMC education department officials, but when no action was taken she met municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta on Wednesday morning. Gupta told her to conduct a raid on the school and take a school inspector along with her.

Dalal took school inspector Rehman and conducted a surprise raid during lunch hour. The squad found that three teachers had been supplied tiffins with meat dishes. The guilty persons, including headmistress Smita Khobragade and two teachers Razia Begam and Nusrat Jabeen were caught red-handed.

The teachers apparently have political backing because as soon as the news of the raid spread in Tajnagar, the local imam and some other men reached the school and started pressurising Dalal and Rehman to withdraw the case. The mob claimed that it was common practice in all schools and Tajnagar school was being targeted unnecessarily. The imam also asked mediapersons present at the spot to not make an issue out of it.

Dalal, however, did not give in to the pressure and returned to NMC central office immediately. She submitted an enquiry report to Gupta. The commissioner has ordered NMC education department to take action against the guilty persons within two days.
 
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